Obama converting campaign into a nonprofit

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is converting the machinery of his re-election campaign into a tax-exempt nonprofit group to push his second-term legislative agenda.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is converting the machinery of his re-election campaign into a tax-exempt nonprofit group to push his second-term legislative agenda.

The new group, Organizing for Action, will be headed by Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager.The group, separate from the Democratic National Committee, will solicit donations from corporations and individuals to augment Obama’s legislative initiatives on issues such as climate change, the economy, reducing gun violence or overhauling immigration policy.

The organization “will be an unparalleled force in American politics,” according to an email sent to supporters by the campaign under Obama’s name. “It will work to turn our shared values into legislative action.”

The transformation marks the first time a president has reconfigured the pieces of a re-election campaign into an outside group formed for the express purpose of pressuring Congress to pass the administration’s agenda.

“Organizing for Action is going to be a very effective tool to organize people all over the country for the president’s agenda,” Stephanie Cutter, who served as Obama’s deputy campaign manager, said yesterday in an interview on MSNBC.

Familiar names will dominate the group’s board of directors, the Democratic official said. Besides Cutter, they include former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and top 2012 campaign aides Jennifer O’Malley-Dillon and Julianna Smoot.

Jon Carson, White House director of the Office of Public Engagement, is being tapped as executive director of the group.

David Axelrod, senior adviser to the 2012 campaign, will become a consultant. White House senior adviser David Plouffe is expected to join the group after he leaves the administration later this month, according to a Democratic official who asked for anonymity because the move hasn’t been announced.

The formation of the organization was reported earlier by the Los Angeles Times.

Total spending in the presidential campaign exceeded $2 billion, Federal Election Commission filings show. During that time, the Obama for America campaign compiled a grass-roots juggernaut of about 12 million email addresses, tapped social media platforms and developed sophisticated political tracking methods to identify voters and their interests.

Such machinery now can be used for an electronic lobbying campaign to carry Obama into the legislative fights with Congress over the next four years.

Evidence of the new effort surfaced on Thursday, when Messina used the email data bank to notify Obama supporters of the need to mobilize in support of the president’s package of measures to reduce gun violence.

“People like you spoke out and demanded action. Your input, along with ideas from leaders and policymakers across the political spectrum, went into the president’s plan,” Messina’s email said.

Vice President Joe Biden, speaking to the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Thursday, promised an all-out push for Obama’s proposals to reduce gun violence.

“We’re going to take this fight to the halls of Congress,” Biden said. “We’re going to take it beyond that, we’re going to take it to the American people. We’re going to go around the country making our case.”